Indian steel prices have been increasing since past couple of weeks and the escalation doesn’t seem to halt. Silicomanganese market too has followed suit and prices have been increasing every week.
Meanwhile, the consumption of ore in the Chinese market has also increased resulting in a marginal drop in the port inventories and boosting the confidence of the manganese ore miners. Today, South 32, revised their prices and increased by 18% for Feb ’21 shipments. Meanwhile in India, MOIL, the largest Manganese ore miner has increased its ore prices by up to 15% m-o-m.
However, the increasing manganese ore prices have supported the increase in Silicomanganese prices and producers are firm on their prices and are not ready to negotiate further. Although any further increase might take some time to get accepted in the domestic market.
Current assessments in Durgapur and Raipur are at INR 70,000/t Ex-plant. However, SteelMint learns from its sources that few deals were also concluded at around INR 69,500/t Ex-works in Raipur. Meanwhile, exports market is yet to pick up post new year holidays. The offers in the export market are at $1,040/t FOB for 65-16 grade. Meanwhile, deals were concluded at $950/t for 60-14 grade FOB India.
Outlook:
Prices are expected to further increase amidst increasing ore prices in the international market and supply concerns amidst container shortage in the global logistics.
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